Standard on Asian trail after AEB deal

Standard Chartered is chasing Asian millionaires with the £431m acquisition of American Express Bank.

AEB, which is part of the US credit card giant, has a large private banking business with most of its customers in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. Standard Chartered (up 61p to 1530p) has a long pedigree in the region and started doing business in Shanghai 150 years ago.

Finance director Richard Meddings said: 'There's a huge amount of money being made in Asia. This deal is a no brainer for us.'

After years of breakneck economic growth, China had 320,000 dollar millionaires in 2006, according to consultancy CapGemini, an increase of nearly 100,000 on 2004.

Standard is buying AEB with its own cash reserves so the credit crisis is unlikely to kill the deal. The deal will cause some job losses but Standard has promised to fill existing job vacancies with AEB staff.